Will a mining company knock out the Oldman River?

By Lethbridge Herald on November 23, 2024.

GUEST OPINION

DAVID MCINTYRE

As hyperventilating and antagonistic Albertans throw elbows and verbal punches in the hallways, a pulsing crowd pushes its way into the boxing arena in advance of the advertised bout. 

The feature fight: an insane and improbable slugfest between a heavyweight, Australian money, and its ability to knockout the abused—battered and neglected—Oldman. 

Chaos is smiling as pandemonium blocks the exits.

Amid the mayhem, my mind flashes back to the autumn of 2017. It was then, in scenic Fernie, B.C., that the annual Crown of the Continent Roundtable met to discuss crowning achievements and threats to its Crown of the Continent poster child, one of Earth’s wildest, most diverse, and intact ecosystems.

The mayors of Crowsnest Pass, Fernie, and Whitefish were invited to the roundtable to provide their visions for their communities, located within the thinly-peopled necklace surrounding the Crown’s core attractions (Glacier National Park in the U.S., and Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada). 

Annual visitation to these two internationally revered parks: more than 3 million people. (Think of these paired parks as Banff’s twin sister in terms of international, rare-earth appeal.)

Roundtable discussions in 2017 centred on ways communities surrounding Waterton-Glacier could benefit by offering, outside parks, the same brand of experiences visitors sought within them.

The roundtable’s focus: on the ability of communities surrounding these parks to offer experiences that mirrored or complemented visitors’ in-park experiences. 

Mayors from the three communities were asked to address the assembled crowd. 

Blair Painter (mayor of Crowsnest Pass) arrived with Riversdale (now rebranded as Northback) staff and sat at a table with them. 

His message, in sharp and acidic contrast to the other two mayors, was to report that he was looking forward to the opening of the Grassy Mountain coal mine. 

I, in response to his statement, raised my hand. I offered that the proposed mine wasn’t assured of a green light, and asked the other mayors (each supporting green initiatives) to comment. They did. 

The mayor of Whitefish offered a “dark” (night sky viewing) vision for Whitefish as part of his answer.

But it was the Fernie response to Mayor Painter’s vision of an in-community coal mine that was priceless: “I’d be run out of town if I did that.”

The Crown of the Continent Roundtable, following the Fernie venue, met in Choteau, MT. 

There, the focus of discussion centred on communities within the Crown that, due to their proximity to airports, health care, and striking natural features, were economically poised to lure amenity migrants and lucrative, high-end, “catch-and-release” visitation.

Crowsnest Pass is blessed with the essential ingredients that would enable it to benefit from this brand of internationally lucrative tourism, but only if the land’s raw and compelling wealth of aesthetic and ecological integrity are retained. 

Today, most public land in southwestern Alberta offers “mud and ruts tourism.” It’s a brand that fails in its ability to generate meaningful revenue, and it continually degrades the land’s core worth, … and the headwaters of the priceless and irreplaceable Oldman.

My thought: Crowsnest Pass can celebrate its past without trying to relive its past, and without crippling and destroying its greatest assets, its potential worth … and its future.

David lives on the land he loves in the storied headwaters of southwestern Alberta’s Oldman River. He has passionate interest — and knowledge — in diverse natural history disciplines, and is a strong advocate for the long-range economic and ecological worth of intact landscapes. David holds a MSc from the University of Washington (College of the Environment) and, for decades, led multi-day study tours for the Smithsonian Institution — via hiking and whitewater rafting trips — throughout the U.S. West and the Canadian Rockies.